AUGUST 2024 Edition
Feature Article
ACRP Film Premiere
Resolved: Never Again
On Saturday, September 21, 2024, the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project will debut a documentary film that brings a fresh perspective to the history of the United States from enslavement to the lynching era.
“Everyone is used to viewing history from a larger national lens, but our nation is built on small communities and Alexandria’s story is a reflection of the nation’s story,” said Gretchen Bulova, Director of the Office of Historic Alexandria and co-chair of the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project (ACRP).
In Resolved: Never Again, filmmaker Robin Hamilton explores the port city’s involvement in slavery and the domestic slave trade until the Civil War, an era followed by decades of racial terror when the lynchings of Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas took place. The documentary also examines how Alexandria has been confronting parts of this past since 2019.
“Now, we are trying to tell everybody the story of Alexandria, the good and the bad,” Bulova said.
Founded 275 years ago, in 1749, slavery has always been a part of Alexandria’s past, according to Audrey Davis, who heads up the Division of African American History and co-chairs ACRP. “What most people are not aware of is our role as a major hub for the domestic slave trade.” The optimized human trafficking introduced in Alexandria in 1828 continued until 1861 when Union Troops took control of the city. In the decades after the Civil War, conservatives slowly took over and shut down any and all opportunities for African Americans to exercise their hard earned civil rights. The lynchings of Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas, in 1897 and 1899, terrorized Alexandria’s Black community members into submission.
The film also captures the impact of the Equal Justice Initiative’s Remembrance Movement on our community from exposing these uncomfortable truths, to honoring the lives and deaths of Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas with historic markers, a soil collection and a pilgrimage by nearly 200 community members and high school students to Montgomery, Ala. to deliver the sacred soil to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.
Interviews with Mayor Justin Wilson, former Police Chief Don Hayes and Sheriff Sean Casey bring out the importance of acknowledging and taking responsibility for the past actions and inactions of their counterparts as we move toward reconciling. Another feature of the film focuses on descendants of Joseph McCoy, and how their family learned about their connection to this history and to Alexandria. Debra White, a spokesperson for the McCoy family, talks about joining Alexandrians to engage with this history in an attempt to join together for a better future.
“We are all part of one human race,” said Rev. Dr. Taft Quincey Heatley of Shiloh Baptist Church, “give one another the benefit of the doubt by sharing kindness before judgment.”
Please join us for the premiere of Resolved: Never Again on Saturday, September 21, 2024 at the historic George Washington Masonic National Memorial. There are multiple ways to participate in the evening while contributing to the ongoing work of the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project. The evening opens at 5:30 with a Fundraising Reception, the film begins at 7 p.m. followed by a panel discussion that will end at 8:30 p.m.
Attend the film and panel discussion, doors open at 6:30 p.m. Purchase tickets online.
Meet Robin Hamilton, Founder and Principal of ARound Robin Productions, and many of those who are featured in the film at a Fundraising Reception prior to the debut while enjoying spirits and appetizers, preferred seating for the screening and panel discussion, as well as a promotional poster signed by Robin Hamilton. Reception begins at 5:30 p.m. Purchase tickets online.
All proceeds from this event support the work of the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project.
In The News
On Thurs. Aug. 8, more than 150 Alexandrians met at Shiloh Baptist Church to honor Benjamin Thomas memory with a courageous conversation with Rachel Laser about the parental rights movement's attacks on civil rights and liberties. Our gracious hosts, Shiloh Baptist Church and Choir, put on an amazing event for the 125th anniversary of the lynching of Benjamin Thomas and the protest that grew out of his death. Learn more about the evening.
Read about Black Alexandria's Reaction to Ben Thomas lynching in The Alexandria Times.
Read more of WAMU’s coverage of the Remembrance.
Read ALXnow's reporting on the event.
Upcoming Committee Meetings
View the Historic Alexandria Calendar
Candlelight Vigil and Wreath Laying at Freedmen’s Cemetery
Saturday, September 7, 8 p.m. (shuttle service from Lee Center starting at 7:30 p.m.)
Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial, 1001 S. Washington Street
Free
The City of Alexandria invites the public to participate in the tenth anniversary of the dedication of the Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial. This year’s remembrance will honor the late Lillie Finklea and her work with her friend Louise Massoud to create the Friends of Freedmen’s Cemetery.
To learn more about the vigil, and ticketed programs and events on Sept. 6-7, visit https://www.alexandriava.gov/FreedmenMemorial.
To purchase tickets for the Bus Tour of Pre-Civil Era Historic African American Churches and Sites of Alexandria (September 6), 10th Anniversary Luncheon (September 7), or the Bus Tour to Arlington House (September 7), visit https://shop.alexandriava.gov/Events.aspx.
A Courageous Conversation with Jim Wallis
Thurs. Sept. 26, 7 p.m.
Lettie Pate Evans Room at the Virginia Theological Seminary
Free
The ACRP Interfaith Leaders have joined with the Virginia Theological Seminary to cosponsor the next Courageous Conversation event with Jim Wallis, the author of The False White Gospel. We hope that you will consider joining us in the Addison Academic Building, lower level, in the multipurpose Lettie Pate Evans Room to hear Wallis discuss the impact whiteness has had on the American christian church and the role it has played in the current national crisis.
Volunteers Needed
Consider joining our newest committee, the ACRP Schools and Libraries Action Committee, and help fight back against censorship, book bans and hate while supporting students, teachers, librarians in Alexandria and Virginia.
Learn more and sign up here.
Upcoming Committee Meetings
The next Alexandria Community Remembrance Project Steering Committee Meeting will be held Tues. Sept. 10 at 5 p.m. at Alexandria Black History Museum.
Alexandria Community Remembrance Project
The Alexandria Community Remembrance Project (ACRP) is a city-wide initiative dedicated to helping Alexandria understand its history of racial terror hate crimes and to work toward creating a welcoming community bound by equity and inclusion.
In Memoriam
Write "ACRP" in Comments on the donation form.
Office of Historic Alexandria
City of Alexandria, Virginia
ACRP@alexandriava.gov